WEBVTT 00:01.432 --> 00:02.273 Good evening everyone. 00:08.701 --> 00:11.704 Welcome to our daily Dhamma broadcast. 00:17.411 --> 00:22.056 Testing out our new broadcast method. 00:24.699 --> 00:30.426 And to our local meditators who again have spent a day 00:31.857 --> 00:35.222 dedicating themselves to Buddhist teaching. 00:44.717 --> 00:56.515 When we study the Buddha's teaching, it's easy to get lost in the Buddha's teaching. 00:58.334 --> 01:03.683 It's not easy to sum up the Buddha's teaching in a few words. 01:05.506 --> 01:09.432 It seems like everywhere you pull at the Buddha's teaching it leads to something else. 01:14.119 --> 01:20.089 So to really understand it takes often quite a bit of 01:29.722 --> 01:59.442 quite a bit of explanation a bit of picking here and there but we do have various basic starting points we have the Buddha's starting point where he started when he began to teach when the Buddha began to teach first he wasn't going to teach 02:01.261 --> 02:02.302 He became enlightened. 02:03.304 --> 02:04.906 He had no inclination to teach. 02:04.946 --> 02:07.048 It's sort of the dilemma of becoming enlightened. 02:09.311 --> 02:21.086 On the one hand, you have great benefit and you're a wonderful person to learn from. 02:21.126 --> 02:25.632 On the other hand, you have no desire left, so 02:27.181 --> 02:29.384 no intention to teach unless invited. 02:30.346 --> 02:32.789 Fortunately for us, the Buddha was invited to teach. 02:34.732 --> 02:35.473 And so he taught. 02:35.513 --> 02:41.402 He turned the wheel of Dhamma. 02:41.422 --> 02:55.062 He set in motion a living tradition, a lineage to be handed 02:56.442 --> 02:57.884 from teacher to student. 03:01.468 --> 03:04.351 That has continued rolling up until the present day. 03:07.855 --> 03:26.415 It all started with five ascetics reluctant to hear the Buddha's teaching because it went against their views and their idea of having to torture oneself in order to become enlightened. 03:28.977 --> 03:55.221 And so the Buddha explained to them the middle way The first thing he taught was that Spiritual practice need not be extreme, shouldn't be extreme Religious practice shouldn't be a reaction Shouldn't be a reaction to the problem of 03:56.922 --> 04:05.652 Worldliness shouldn't be a reaction to the problem of desire and ambition and clinging and so on. 04:07.574 --> 04:09.917 A religious practice should be an understanding. 04:14.162 --> 04:22.812 Something very special about the Buddha's teaching as a religion is how important it is for one to cultivate understanding. 04:25.205 --> 04:27.111 Buddhism isn't, of course, about faith. 04:29.838 --> 04:31.824 It isn't about escaping the mundane. 04:31.884 --> 04:36.598 It's about understanding, understanding the mundane. 04:42.012 --> 04:44.677 Buddhism is at once a religion and a science. 04:44.777 --> 04:46.920 It's a religion because we take it seriously. 04:46.981 --> 04:50.326 It's not just about knowledge and wisdom. 04:51.548 --> 04:52.230 It's about us. 04:52.410 --> 04:53.512 It's about our lives. 04:53.572 --> 04:57.859 It's about the very core of our being, our identity, who we are. 04:58.781 --> 04:59.763 It's about our future. 05:00.163 --> 05:01.165 It's about ourselves. 05:02.908 --> 05:04.611 It's about happiness and peace. 05:08.253 --> 05:16.925 It's a science because it involves investigation, observations and conclusions based on solid observations. 05:24.315 --> 05:37.433 So the Buddha taught this as a middle way, a middle way of understanding really, right view, right thought, right speech, right action. 05:38.830 --> 05:46.141 right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. 05:51.510 --> 05:53.553 You see, so it becomes a whole bunch of things. 05:54.334 --> 05:59.202 You start with something simple, but it's not really simple at all. 06:05.459 --> 06:09.467 Right view is the knowledge of the Four Noble Truths. 06:09.807 --> 06:13.374 So it's reflective and it's recursive. 06:20.628 --> 06:21.790 It's an infinite loop. 06:23.754 --> 06:23.974 Yeah. 06:25.237 --> 06:37.272 You talk about the Eightfold Noble Path and you end up going to the Four Noble Truths, the fourth of which is the Eightfold Noble Path, the first of which involves the Four Noble Truths, and so on. 06:37.292 --> 06:41.778 You see, Buddhism is just explaining the Buddha's teaching. 06:42.839 --> 06:52.712 It requires us to be content and to touch upon pieces of it. 06:54.785 --> 06:57.828 To really explain all of the Buddha's teaching gets more complicated. 07:04.455 --> 07:12.264 So when we talk about the Eightfold Noble Path, we have eight parts we can actually, if we just want to get a sense of it. 07:14.086 --> 07:21.754 It's very useful to go into detail, but if we just want to get a sense of it, we talk about the three trainings. 07:23.624 --> 07:33.417 Right view involves the Four Noble Truths, understanding the Four Noble Truths, and it involves having right thoughts, thoughts that are free from greed, anger, delusion. 07:36.862 --> 07:38.384 But altogether it just means wisdom. 07:39.706 --> 07:41.128 This is what we mean by wisdom. 07:42.710 --> 07:43.872 Right view and right thought. 07:47.336 --> 07:52.163 And then we have right speech, right action, right livelihood, so 07:53.543 --> 08:04.698 We don't kill, we don't steal, we don't lie and cheat. 08:04.718 --> 08:13.830 But altogether, it just means ethics, morality, sila, to have a proper ethic. 08:16.628 --> 08:20.472 It means our actions and our speech should be mindful. 08:21.713 --> 08:26.618 Ultimately, morality is a part of a meditation practice. 08:26.638 --> 08:30.863 Ethics isn't putting yourself in a situation where you might kill and not kill. 08:30.883 --> 08:38.611 Do you think, living in a meditation center, how can you cultivate morality? 08:41.914 --> 08:43.836 It's a part of your meditation practice. 08:43.856 --> 08:44.577 When you walk, 08:46.025 --> 08:48.167 You can walk unethically. 08:51.131 --> 08:55.796 And when you speak, when you eat, when you shower, your shower is ethically charged. 08:56.978 --> 09:01.783 But you didn't realize that when you're on the toilet, it can be an unethical act. 09:03.585 --> 09:05.948 The ethics of the bathroom. 09:07.610 --> 09:08.250 It's very true. 09:08.290 --> 09:11.374 No joke. 09:14.898 --> 09:17.161 The things that you do, is your mind pure? 09:17.241 --> 09:18.222 Is your mind clear? 09:19.564 --> 09:21.267 Are you clearly aware of what you're doing? 09:21.327 --> 09:24.030 That's proper morality. 09:24.871 --> 09:26.874 It's associated with mindfulness. 09:28.596 --> 09:33.683 The mind that has mindfulness also has morality. 09:34.564 --> 09:35.646 It also is ethical. 09:35.726 --> 09:39.471 You can never kill or steal or lie or cheat mindfully. 09:41.138 --> 09:52.853 There has to be a moment where you disregard the clarity of mind that comes with mindfulness and you force yourself, push yourself to do something unethical. 09:57.862 --> 10:00.665 Ethics becomes much stronger in a meditation center. 10:00.706 --> 10:03.169 Of course, you're not killing or stealing or lying or cheating. 10:03.209 --> 10:03.529 Great. 10:04.831 --> 10:05.572 That's wonderful. 10:05.772 --> 10:08.115 Being in a meditation center, ethics is quite easy. 10:09.376 --> 10:15.524 But it becomes much more refined and powerful because you're eating ethically. 10:15.984 --> 10:17.546 You're not greedy when you eat. 10:17.687 --> 10:19.989 You're not eating out of greed. 10:20.029 --> 10:22.873 Your actions are pure. 10:24.440 --> 10:28.473 When you're in the shower, you're showering ethically, mindfully. 10:28.934 --> 10:29.817 There's no delusion. 10:29.877 --> 10:32.666 There's no greed. 10:32.706 --> 10:33.589 There's no anger. 10:50.647 --> 10:56.358 And the last three are right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. 10:58.102 --> 11:03.072 Altogether, it's the samadhi, which we translate as concentration or focus. 11:04.975 --> 11:06.799 So it's the concentration section. 11:08.551 --> 11:10.874 To have proper concentration, you need effort. 11:12.135 --> 11:14.377 It takes work. 11:15.559 --> 11:16.920 You need mindfulness. 11:17.441 --> 11:21.465 So right concentration isn't just about focusing the mind. 11:21.565 --> 11:23.448 It's about being clearly aware as well. 11:28.613 --> 11:32.938 Being focused on the object and having the object in focus. 11:34.589 --> 11:36.753 It's easy to be focused on something. 11:37.374 --> 11:38.136 Well, it's not really. 11:38.176 --> 11:51.501 It's easy to feel focused in the sense of the mind that is stiff and unbending, but it's much harder to be in focus where you're actually aware of the object and clearly grasping it in your awareness. 11:55.632 --> 11:58.116 So sila-samadhi-panya, we can do this sort of thing. 11:58.176 --> 12:02.403 We abbreviate the Buddhist teaching to get a sense of it. 12:03.044 --> 12:08.753 It helps us so we don't have to get, because each one of the eightfold noble parts can be further subdivided. 12:08.813 --> 12:14.181 We can talk about each one of them and it sends us down the rabbit hole. 12:16.760 --> 12:20.585 But that's the first thing the Buddha taught and then he put it in the larger context. 12:21.687 --> 12:29.377 That was in many ways the first teaching, the first thing he taught was much more directed to the specific audience because they were at an extreme. 12:29.498 --> 12:38.430 They were torturing themselves and they were really reluctant to listen to him because obviously he was no longer practicing in an extreme way. 12:40.317 --> 12:47.804 So if you want to say the first teaching proper, it was what came next, and that's the actual delineation of the Four Noble Truths. 12:52.909 --> 13:06.342 So in remembering the Buddha, remembrance of the Buddha's teaching, and getting back to our own basics, starting at the beginning, we go over the Four Noble Truths. 13:08.026 --> 13:09.708 remind ourselves, what are these? 13:10.028 --> 13:11.350 What is this that we're seeking? 13:13.052 --> 13:27.027 The Buddha said about these, Not seeing these formidable truths, I wandered on from life to life. 13:32.393 --> 13:33.274 Wandered along. 13:34.992 --> 13:39.678 for such a long time from life, from birth to birth. 13:47.008 --> 13:50.112 So the first noble truth is the one we're all familiar with, suffering. 13:51.334 --> 13:53.216 We're familiar with it in two ways. 13:53.377 --> 13:58.123 We're familiar with it as the first, or as the essence of the Buddha's teaching. 13:58.243 --> 13:59.565 Yes, what is Buddhism all about? 13:59.625 --> 14:01.067 Yes, it's all about suffering. 14:03.578 --> 14:07.503 And also second, we're familiar with it because we're familiar with suffering. 14:08.624 --> 14:14.932 I think it's hard to find someone who doesn't have at least a mild sense of what it means to suffer. 14:16.394 --> 14:25.365 You might criticize certain people and say they live such pampered lives, they don't know suffering, but I don't think it really matters how pampered you are. 14:25.385 --> 14:27.588 You still suffer as a human being. 14:28.549 --> 14:29.991 A rich person suffers 14:31.102 --> 14:38.132 When they have to wait for, when they don't get what they want immediately, they still suffer. 14:40.274 --> 14:45.562 Even when they get what they want, they still might suffer when it's not exactly what they expected. 14:48.105 --> 14:53.953 In fact, you might say the more spoiled a person is, the more suffering they have. 14:56.465 --> 14:58.850 constantly wanting. 14:59.792 --> 15:01.916 And whenever you're wanting, there's a stress involved. 15:01.936 --> 15:04.622 There's a suffering involved. 15:04.642 --> 15:06.125 You're not, you're not happy. 15:07.828 --> 15:08.530 You're anxious. 15:09.993 --> 15:10.875 You're displeased. 15:10.935 --> 15:13.039 You're uncomfortable. 15:15.601 --> 15:17.343 Most people don't understand happiness. 15:17.604 --> 15:18.805 They think they do. 15:18.825 --> 15:21.268 They think they know what happiness is. 15:21.288 --> 15:27.056 So it's such a surprise once they begin to meditate to realize how much they're suffering. 15:28.177 --> 15:31.882 In the beginning, it often feels like the meditation is causing you suffering. 15:33.585 --> 15:34.886 This meditation, wow. 15:36.749 --> 15:38.571 It's really unpleasant to meditate, right? 15:39.698 --> 15:41.420 But all it's doing is showing you you. 15:41.460 --> 15:47.329 It's saying, hey, stop running away from it and let's see what we've got inside. 15:47.389 --> 15:51.254 Because believe it or not, some people practice meditation and don't suffer terribly. 15:55.120 --> 15:59.426 And so you come to realize that it's really our own minds that cause us suffering. 15:59.446 --> 16:01.970 It's nothing to do with the meditation. 16:04.253 --> 16:06.516 Meditation is just showing you this first noble truth. 16:09.213 --> 16:15.624 They're noble because they're important, because they're useful, because these are the truths that make you free. 16:15.684 --> 16:18.610 These are the truths that set you free. 16:20.994 --> 16:22.617 There are many kinds of truth that don't. 16:23.498 --> 16:26.243 And if you know and understand them, they're not really that useful. 16:28.028 --> 16:39.484 But understanding these truths, they're very fundamental to not an impersonal understanding of the universe, but they're very fundamental to an understanding of our universe, of us, of who we are. 16:40.606 --> 16:42.569 They're very religious in that sense. 16:43.090 --> 16:52.483 They're truths that are important, that are useful, that are all about us, all about our experience. 16:58.808 --> 17:00.434 So suffering, it's there. 17:00.474 --> 17:03.866 And really it's the one you have to understand. 17:03.906 --> 17:09.747 If you understand suffering and you see what is causing you suffering and you really get it, it's all you need. 17:12.055 --> 17:17.644 So this is an important point about Buddhism, is that suffering is not to be escaped. 17:17.724 --> 17:21.751 It's not something we run from, something we come to understand. 17:22.452 --> 17:27.821 The goal in Buddhism is not to escape suffering, not directly, exactly. 17:29.003 --> 17:31.347 The goal of Buddhism is to understand suffering. 17:32.669 --> 17:36.055 And then, and only then, can you escape it. 17:37.688 --> 17:39.610 Because we cause ourselves suffering. 17:39.630 --> 17:39.871 Why? 17:39.891 --> 17:42.374 Because of the second noble truth. 17:43.415 --> 17:44.736 What is the cause of suffering? 17:44.776 --> 17:51.564 The cause of suffering really, it's not exactly what the Buddha said because you have to again go deeper. 17:51.604 --> 17:59.273 The real cause of suffering is not understanding suffering. 17:59.333 --> 18:00.675 Seeing things that are 18:03.220 --> 18:07.324 unsatisfying or unable to satisfy, even thinking they're going to satisfy. 18:07.364 --> 18:15.593 Because it's that which leads to the direct cause of suffering, which is desire or thirst or craving. 18:17.635 --> 18:29.127 This ambition or this attraction to various experiences and concepts and objects. 18:36.397 --> 18:43.829 And so through understanding, through understanding suffering, through the first noble truth, when you really understand it, what happens is you abandon craving. 18:43.869 --> 18:44.570 It's quite simple. 18:48.216 --> 18:57.491 We're often concerned with giving up our addictions, giving up our desires and being more content living a simpler life. 19:00.115 --> 19:04.041 And so we strive to free ourselves and to free ourselves from addiction. 19:05.573 --> 19:06.875 Really, we go about it all wrong. 19:06.895 --> 19:08.337 We don't have to worry about the addiction. 19:08.377 --> 19:14.606 Look at the thing you're addicted to, and we're afraid to, because we think that's attractive, that's desirable. 19:15.407 --> 19:19.853 So in order to be free from it, you have to avoid it. 19:20.895 --> 19:27.264 You have to not think about that thing, because that thing makes you happy. 19:28.325 --> 19:33.893 We know that ultimately it makes us unhappy, but we also know that we really... 19:33.873 --> 19:42.288 really are pleased by it, that somehow deep down in our heart of hearts we're attracted to it. 19:43.911 --> 19:47.998 Which we can't figure out because intellectually we know it's horrible for us, you know. 19:48.019 --> 19:53.689 Alcohol is awful, but I like it. 19:53.769 --> 19:58.277 And so the wonderful thing about Buddhism, this great claim that it makes, 20:00.367 --> 20:02.410 It's that it's not attractive. 20:02.830 --> 20:10.259 It's that if you, the only reason we're attracted to things, anything, is because we don't understand it. 20:10.640 --> 20:12.202 Because we haven't seen it clearly. 20:13.063 --> 20:25.358 That if you observe something, anything, for what it is, as it is, clearly, there's no way, it's impossible for you to be attracted to it. 20:27.921 --> 20:29.243 Isn't that a powerful claim? 20:31.990 --> 20:34.773 It's not possible to like something if you understand it. 20:34.873 --> 20:37.095 It's not possible to be attached to something. 20:40.879 --> 20:42.081 That's the second noble truth. 20:42.941 --> 20:45.324 The third noble truth is the cessation of suffering. 20:45.344 --> 20:49.568 This speaks to the real goal, right? 20:49.628 --> 20:53.312 The final goal, which is to escape. 20:55.395 --> 20:55.855 Just don't. 20:57.168 --> 21:02.836 Don't like to talk about it exactly like that because it's easy to get the wrong idea that that should be our focus. 21:03.197 --> 21:03.878 Let's run away. 21:04.899 --> 21:12.751 Let's go to Canada and stay in a room in a basement and I won't have to deal with all the suffering of life. 21:12.931 --> 21:15.294 I'll be able to find the door. 21:16.176 --> 21:16.917 Get me out of here. 21:19.561 --> 21:22.024 There's no secret door in our basement, not that I've found. 21:23.606 --> 21:25.369 There's no way out of suffering like that. 21:28.488 --> 21:35.839 The cessation of suffering, of course, comes when you stop craving things, which comes from when you understand them. 21:38.263 --> 21:41.669 But nonetheless, it is real and it's important to talk about. 21:42.490 --> 21:44.092 Cessation from suffering is real. 21:44.693 --> 21:46.196 Cessation of suffering is real. 21:46.536 --> 21:47.478 Freedom from suffering. 21:48.780 --> 21:49.741 Nibbana is real. 21:52.205 --> 21:54.128 And when you realize it, boy, is it real. 21:54.729 --> 21:56.672 It's the most real thing, the most 21:58.087 --> 22:06.537 It's in a whole other category of existence. 22:09.360 --> 22:10.341 It's ineffable. 22:10.982 --> 22:12.524 It's indescribable. 22:14.366 --> 22:17.770 It's not all that hard to understand intellectually. 22:17.830 --> 22:20.433 It's just freedom, peace, cessation. 22:21.874 --> 22:26.760 But it doesn't come anywhere close to doing it justice. 22:32.967 --> 22:34.729 We have one goal and one goal only. 22:35.350 --> 22:37.713 There is no complicated goal in Buddhism. 22:37.773 --> 22:47.145 There is no esoteric or biased. 22:48.487 --> 22:51.831 There's nothing specifically Buddhist as a goal. 22:51.891 --> 22:52.993 The goal is very simple. 22:53.533 --> 22:56.577 It's the one goal that is of any use, of any value to any of us. 22:56.617 --> 22:57.979 It's freedom from suffering. 23:01.233 --> 23:05.421 The fourth noble truth again is the path, which I've already talked about. 23:06.295 --> 23:06.936 And that was it. 23:07.076 --> 23:08.958 That was the first teaching of the Buddha, really. 23:09.799 --> 23:20.510 He goes on to say, there's one more thing, is that he talks about how each of these truths is important to understand, but there's something you have to do. 23:20.590 --> 23:23.753 There's a task to be done. 23:23.893 --> 23:29.258 So as I mentioned, the first noble truth, the suffering is to be understood, fully understood. 23:30.580 --> 23:33.703 Second noble truth, the cause of suffering is to be abandoned. 23:33.683 --> 23:35.946 abandoned through understanding. 23:37.167 --> 23:41.172 Third noble truth, the cessation of suffering is to be realized for yourself. 23:41.292 --> 23:44.536 Fourth noble truth, the path is to be cultivated. 23:47.840 --> 24:00.535 And once suffering has been understood, fully understood, once craving, desire has been fully abandoned, once the cessation of suffering has been realized, 24:03.991 --> 24:10.679 And once the path has been followed in order to realize it, that's when one can say one is enlightened. 24:11.540 --> 24:12.220 Not before that. 24:13.362 --> 24:14.864 That's the Buddha's first teaching. 24:16.465 --> 24:17.867 That's the basics of Buddhism. 24:17.907 --> 24:19.649 That's really where Buddhism starts. 24:19.729 --> 24:24.435 If you want someone to understand Buddhism, this sort of thing is really... 24:25.175 --> 24:33.525 I don't know how... What's the word? 24:36.307 --> 24:54.469 I don't know how easy to understand this is for someone who is new to Buddhism, but there's nothing simple about Buddhism in the sense of easy for ordinary people to understand. 24:54.529 --> 25:05.622 If you haven't done some meditation, if you haven't begun to see reality, if you don't have a clear mind, it can be very difficult to understand Buddhism. 25:06.631 --> 25:08.934 Of course, once you practice, it's all quite very simple. 25:10.296 --> 25:19.727 For those of you who have been meditating, I don't think anything I've said tonight is abstruse or hard to understand or esoteric in any way. 25:19.747 --> 25:24.113 So there you go. 25:24.133 --> 25:25.454 There's our Dhamma for tonight. 25:26.756 --> 25:28.698 I hope that was useful. 25:28.738 --> 25:30.360 I hope the broadcast went okay. 25:30.380 --> 25:31.602 It looks like it's going fine. 25:32.603 --> 25:34.866 I figured everything out after last night. 25:39.622 --> 25:43.648 And I can't still get, I can't now get the audio working. 25:43.868 --> 25:45.891 Our audio broadcast somehow is broken. 25:45.991 --> 25:48.935 It won't let me, I don't know what happened there. 26:06.760 --> 26:07.080 So 26:28.289 --> 26:30.352 If there are any questions, I'm happy to answer them. 26:47.392 --> 26:50.756 What advice can you give for meditation discipline to practice much more? 26:50.796 --> 26:54.301 I suppose I could. 26:54.321 --> 26:57.064 I get this question a lot, but my inclination is to say, 26:58.259 --> 26:59.501 Motivation is your job. 27:00.443 --> 27:02.025 It's not my job to motivate you. 27:02.466 --> 27:03.488 Yeah, that's not fair, is it? 27:04.008 --> 27:05.331 Teachers are supposed to motivate. 27:05.371 --> 27:11.260 But what I want to say is that I'm not going to hold your hand and a teacher shouldn't hold your hand. 27:13.183 --> 27:15.387 What a teacher should do is give you this kick in the pants. 27:15.427 --> 27:19.153 I think it's quite motivating to tell you that you have to motivate yourself. 27:22.036 --> 27:27.724 I think that's the best advice I can give you for motivation is stop asking me to motivate you. 27:28.726 --> 27:30.208 Because it's lazy, right? 27:30.368 --> 27:33.613 I'm sorry, I don't mean to be critical, but I get this question a lot. 27:33.633 --> 27:36.938 And I think this is how I'm inclined to answer it. 27:38.660 --> 27:38.840 Why? 27:38.881 --> 27:41.044 Because it's more, see, it's more deep than that. 27:41.064 --> 27:41.985 The point being, 27:43.838 --> 27:45.541 it's not going to work out. 27:46.542 --> 27:47.344 There's no God. 27:47.684 --> 27:59.764 I mean, we come in the Western world very much entrenched in this idea, not even this idea, but this sense that there's a purpose to the universe and that God has a plan for you. 27:59.784 --> 28:02.488 I mean, even if we're not Christian or Jewish, 28:02.468 --> 28:10.242 We grew up in this sort of idea, this environment, and it's not true. 28:11.544 --> 28:14.970 Everything might go to garbage for you. 28:15.972 --> 28:18.737 You might wind up in hell and who knows where you're going in the future. 28:18.817 --> 28:20.180 It's not all going to work out. 28:20.200 --> 28:21.422 There is no happy ending. 28:23.444 --> 28:24.426 Unless you make it. 28:25.548 --> 28:26.631 It's completely up to you. 28:27.132 --> 28:32.944 So that's really the one thing that a person has to do for themselves is motivate themselves. 28:35.629 --> 28:40.339 Think of that as your one job is to get motivated. 28:42.260 --> 28:43.982 to do it, to actually do it. 28:44.362 --> 28:50.748 And if you think like that, if you're focused on that, I think everything else comes, right? 28:50.768 --> 28:59.297 Chanda is the first step when you want to do something, when you're interested in doing something, when you have the inclination to do something. 29:05.503 --> 29:07.105 Okay, do we have lots of questions here? 29:09.707 --> 29:10.528 Okay. 29:12.635 --> 29:15.900 I guess I should go over to Second Life as well and see what's going on there. 29:18.344 --> 29:19.846 How are we doing over here at Second Life? 29:27.958 --> 29:28.199 Right. 29:29.320 --> 29:31.083 So there's sort of a question. 29:31.103 --> 29:36.511 We shouldn't run away from suffering, but the purpose of Buddhism is to escape suffering. 29:36.531 --> 29:36.972 Yes. 29:39.938 --> 29:42.281 The purpose in Buddhism is to be free from suffering. 29:43.242 --> 29:46.165 It's much simpler than you're making out to be, I think. 29:46.786 --> 29:48.288 It's not really a contradiction. 29:48.428 --> 29:51.972 There's something wrong with us. 29:53.875 --> 29:54.956 And that's clear. 29:56.458 --> 29:57.539 Or maybe not clear. 29:58.060 --> 30:02.605 Buddhism makes the claim that suffering is because of us. 30:03.850 --> 30:06.773 There's something wrong with us, and that's why we suffer. 30:07.093 --> 30:08.335 That's sort of a Buddhist claim. 30:09.055 --> 30:10.757 It's not because someone else is hurting us. 30:10.837 --> 30:12.379 It's not because of our situation. 30:12.419 --> 30:14.681 It's not because we're missing something. 30:15.502 --> 30:15.862 It's us. 30:16.142 --> 30:17.183 Something's wrong with us. 30:19.065 --> 30:22.889 So what we do is we try to figure that out. 30:23.250 --> 30:28.034 We try to understand that, to really figure out what's wrong with us. 30:28.855 --> 30:32.259 And the idea is once you understand it, you solve the problem. 30:32.599 --> 30:33.520 That's really all it is. 30:37.702 --> 30:49.942 So when we talk about being free from suffering, being free from the problem, well, if you want to be free from a problem, you really should try and figure out what the problem is, figure out what you're doing wrong, and then start doing it right. 30:50.865 --> 30:51.306 That's all. 31:03.402 --> 31:06.266 I really need an assistant here to sort out all these questions. 31:07.388 --> 31:09.932 Maybe we shouldn't do the live chat questions. 31:10.012 --> 31:10.933 There's just too many of them. 31:13.617 --> 31:14.639 Make it more difficult. 31:14.959 --> 31:16.882 We should just do questions on our site. 31:17.103 --> 31:17.924 That's what we should do. 31:19.146 --> 31:20.047 Too many questions. 31:25.355 --> 31:26.998 And they're questions I ask again and again. 31:27.679 --> 31:28.600 I answer again and again. 31:29.980 --> 31:31.782 Okay, so I'm going to be selective tonight. 31:32.062 --> 31:33.543 Is laying down okay to meditate? 31:33.583 --> 31:34.564 Yes, absolutely. 31:38.848 --> 31:40.930 Can one live an enlightened life in this society? 31:40.970 --> 31:45.334 Yes, qualified yes. 31:46.215 --> 31:50.079 If you become really enlightened, you start to leave society and get less interested in it. 31:50.099 --> 31:57.085 If you're completely enlightened, you really can't engage in society in the way other people do. 32:04.878 --> 32:06.124 Yeah, you can certainly lie down. 32:06.144 --> 32:06.838 That's no problem. 32:41.834 --> 32:44.658 Pros and cons of being a monk in the West versus East? 32:48.363 --> 32:48.844 I don't know. 32:48.864 --> 32:50.186 That's not something I think about. 32:52.449 --> 32:54.232 Those aren't the sorts of questions I answer. 32:54.392 --> 32:54.672 Sorry. 32:56.575 --> 32:57.797 See, I'm not a very good teacher. 32:58.117 --> 32:59.860 I'm very crabby and I'm very picky. 33:02.063 --> 33:03.345 I don't answer all your questions. 33:05.328 --> 33:07.791 How does meditation involve itself with that? 33:10.673 --> 33:29.851 Being able to control, I don't get it Ask me a simpler question And Sanka with his good questions Okay, let's delve into Sanka's question Why are the salayatana omitted from the Mahadit Nidhana Sutta? 33:29.871 --> 33:30.912 What do I look like, the Buddha? 33:30.932 --> 33:40.461 I can answer this And I can answer why he taught what he did 33:41.403 --> 33:46.989 Let's see, Maha Nidhana, so we're looking at the, yeah, this is Paticca Samuppada. 33:54.797 --> 33:57.380 Hmm. 33:57.400 --> 33:58.341 That's a good question. 34:00.043 --> 34:02.205 Well, the six senses are in contact. 34:03.347 --> 34:04.588 Contact is the six senses. 34:04.648 --> 34:06.550 That's what I would say quite simply. 34:08.285 --> 34:10.942 I'm as surprised as you are that they're missing. 34:12.170 --> 34:12.794 It's a good point. 34:13.398 --> 34:14.042 Good question. 34:30.037 --> 34:32.059 It's a very terrible translation as usual. 34:33.000 --> 34:36.082 Tanisarabhika is a really good monk, but he's not a very good translator. 34:36.142 --> 34:36.923 I'm sorry to say. 34:36.963 --> 34:38.244 I'm not the only one who thinks that. 34:39.325 --> 34:40.626 Let's see if I can find this. 34:40.726 --> 34:41.467 Which one is it? 34:41.607 --> 34:43.268 It's 15, right? 34:43.288 --> 34:49.554 Okay. 34:49.574 --> 34:56.840 D and 15. 34:56.860 --> 34:59.402 Let's get Maurice Walsh's version, see if it's any better. 35:03.517 --> 35:08.008 The six sense bases are omitted for some reason in this sutta. 35:08.048 --> 35:13.722 That's what Maurice Walsh says. 35:13.742 --> 35:16.007 That's what the commentary says. 35:19.362 --> 35:31.946 The six sense bases are contact, or contact is the six sense bases. 35:32.427 --> 35:38.198 I mean, the brief scan of the commentary doesn't really say why he omitted them, it just says that they're in there. 35:49.298 --> 36:07.898 yeah i mean i have to spend a little time translating that but it's basically that they're together 36:09.430 --> 36:16.000 Because contact means contact of the sense, contact at the moment of seeing, at the moment of hearing. 36:17.082 --> 36:35.151 Someone might say, I'm not going to be the one to say it, but I'll say someone might say that it was just a copyist error, that it actually should be in there, but in fact was an error of copying or transcribing or passing on the text. 36:38.371 --> 36:40.234 And we have to accept that that is a possibility. 36:41.255 --> 36:42.978 Even if as Buddhists we don't like that idea. 36:59.222 --> 37:00.984 Good very well have to do with the audience. 37:01.085 --> 37:01.866 That's a good point. 37:04.890 --> 37:05.371 Okay. 37:05.591 --> 37:06.553 There's too many questions. 37:06.593 --> 37:07.534 I can't get through them all. 37:08.712 --> 37:13.199 Okay, someone here is trying to ask me a question. 37:13.259 --> 37:17.065 Dick Carlisle asked, but it's not really a question, so you have to give me something simpler. 37:18.487 --> 37:19.068 What do you mean? 37:20.029 --> 37:20.791 Do you believe in God? 37:20.851 --> 37:21.031 No. 37:21.271 --> 37:22.233 Did Buddha believe in God? 37:22.293 --> 37:22.433 No. 37:24.316 --> 37:26.339 Buddhism with Hindu, yogi, Christianity. 37:26.359 --> 37:26.940 That's okay. 37:26.980 --> 37:27.561 Power to you. 37:27.601 --> 37:28.242 Do as you like. 37:28.683 --> 37:30.265 I'm not here to tell you what to do. 37:35.813 --> 37:37.455 What do you think about rhythmic breathing? 37:37.555 --> 37:37.895 I don't. 37:38.376 --> 37:39.657 I don't teach rhythmic breathing. 37:40.738 --> 37:41.799 Does the Buddha believe in God? 37:41.859 --> 37:41.999 No. 37:56.294 --> 37:58.356 Do Westerners really understand meditation? 37:58.736 --> 37:59.697 Yeah, I don't know. 37:59.717 --> 38:00.538 Not my question. 38:09.040 --> 38:12.304 Can a tourist go with kasaya robe in Thailand? 38:13.325 --> 38:15.768 Are you asking whether a non-monk can wear the robe? 38:15.928 --> 38:18.231 If they do, no, they'll get in big trouble for that. 38:19.553 --> 38:20.514 They get arrested for that. 38:31.768 --> 38:32.388 I mean, you can. 38:32.649 --> 38:34.491 You just might get arrested if they find out. 38:41.170 --> 38:43.012 What do you think of Alcoholics Anonymous? 38:43.373 --> 38:46.396 I, in fact, do sometimes think about Alcoholics Anonymous. 38:46.436 --> 38:48.839 I'm not convinced. 38:48.899 --> 38:59.652 I mean, I think it's impressive and I appreciate the good results that people get from it and how thoughtful it is and so on. 38:59.692 --> 39:03.617 But I think you can see how it's not exactly Buddhist. 39:05.993 --> 39:09.757 It might be effective to help people free themselves from alcohol. 39:09.797 --> 39:14.783 And we'd want to say that some of the best parts of it are in line with Buddhism. 39:14.803 --> 39:19.187 But I think the whole reliance on a higher power is sketchy at best. 39:26.515 --> 39:29.959 What is the significance of the robe? 39:31.846 --> 39:34.571 Well, the robe, it's the lack of significance, really. 39:34.631 --> 39:37.136 I mean, the significance is the simplicity of it. 39:37.176 --> 39:44.068 The robe that we wear is just a rectangle, the idea being we shouldn't wear anything more fancy than that. 39:45.851 --> 39:47.815 So I wear two rectangles of cloth. 39:48.135 --> 39:52.964 There's no sleeves. 39:53.064 --> 39:54.647 There's no buttons. 39:56.939 --> 40:03.688 And it's sewn and made up of pieces so that it's less valuable. 40:03.708 --> 40:06.312 It's not one big beautiful piece of cloth. 40:06.432 --> 40:08.474 It's pieces that have been stitched together. 40:17.447 --> 40:18.648 Yeah, there's lots of questions. 40:18.668 --> 40:20.471 This is quite surprising, actually. 40:20.491 --> 40:23.014 I didn't realize opening up live chat would 40:24.378 --> 40:27.902 subject me to question after question after question. 40:31.006 --> 40:32.147 Why do many monks... 40:32.167 --> 40:33.048 I'm not going to answer that. 40:34.590 --> 40:37.473 Okay, why do many monks think it's okay to use tobacco? 40:40.357 --> 40:44.241 I think many monks don't think it's okay to use tobacco, but they're addicted to it. 40:44.662 --> 40:47.485 And it's sort of become a culture in Asia. 40:48.346 --> 40:53.592 I guess there is sort of a tradition where... 40:55.681 --> 41:02.269 Buddhism was not very strong, I think, is the answer, and it just became a tradition for monks to smoke. 41:05.393 --> 41:12.201 But it's hard as a Western to understand it, and I think most of them realize it's not good, but they're addicted. 41:13.262 --> 41:15.025 I mean, they're not really meditating is the point. 41:15.045 --> 41:20.271 I mean, I think we have this illusion about monks is that they all meditate all the time, and it's not really true. 41:32.182 --> 41:34.877 Well, it's significant in that wearing a robe means you're a monk. 41:36.405 --> 41:39.441 So if you pretend to be a monk for Thai people, that's significant. 41:44.281 --> 41:45.763 What is your view on solipsism? 41:46.124 --> 41:48.247 I had this funny experience in New York. 41:49.088 --> 42:01.047 I said, as Buddhists, I don't think Buddhism is against solipsism. 42:01.067 --> 42:05.614 I don't think we can know whether we're in a solipsistic universe. 42:05.794 --> 42:06.756 I don't think it matters. 42:08.078 --> 42:09.580 But theoretically, 42:11.264 --> 42:15.747 And this monk I was sitting beside was horrified, a Western monk. 42:16.009 --> 42:19.688 I was quite surprised at how vehemently against solipsism he was. 42:21.237 --> 42:25.022 To me, solipsism is just a mind game. 42:25.042 --> 42:27.566 It doesn't really mean anything. 42:28.828 --> 42:39.643 Whether I am the only real being and you are all just emanations of my reality doesn't really matter to a Buddhist because the experience of it is what it is. 42:40.845 --> 42:42.908 And it's only the experience that we're interested in. 42:46.347 --> 42:52.256 So it's just something, some mind candy for us to ponder on and get caught up in and lost in. 43:01.490 --> 43:02.792 Did the Buddha have dreams? 43:03.313 --> 43:05.195 Yes, the Buddha had dreams. 43:05.696 --> 43:07.178 He had some very special dreams. 43:10.524 --> 43:12.827 Now they're just getting silly. 43:21.616 --> 43:23.178 Okay, too many questions. 43:24.240 --> 43:25.121 Too many questions. 43:25.421 --> 43:25.762 Ask them. 43:25.782 --> 43:26.583 I'm not going to answer. 43:26.603 --> 43:27.164 I've had enough. 43:28.446 --> 43:34.634 If you really want to ask a question, we'll prioritize those questions on our website. 43:34.895 --> 43:37.618 So you can go to meditation.sirimangalo.org. 43:37.638 --> 43:39.261 Let me see. 43:39.281 --> 43:41.704 I'll post a link. 43:41.904 --> 43:42.926 Sign up for our site. 43:43.026 --> 43:44.468 Join our meditation community. 43:55.349 --> 44:00.879 There's our site. 44:00.899 --> 44:03.043 Did the Buddha have dreams after his enlightenment? 44:03.083 --> 44:03.564 Maybe not. 44:04.265 --> 44:05.448 I'm not quite sure about that. 44:06.510 --> 44:07.371 It's a good question. 44:07.652 --> 44:08.293 He may not have. 44:10.717 --> 44:13.142 I think my teacher once said that Arahants don't dream. 44:13.362 --> 44:17.610 I think it is a specific... 44:20.527 --> 44:23.236 I mean, it would be kind of silly if they did, right? 44:23.818 --> 44:32.207 Would that be a sense of distraction and a mind that is not completely at peace? 44:48.556 --> 44:49.057 Okay. 44:49.678 --> 44:51.020 Well, thank you all for tuning in. 44:51.500 --> 44:52.382 Do we have any more here? 45:03.979 --> 45:06.582 No. 45:06.602 --> 45:06.923 Okay. 45:07.524 --> 45:08.625 Well, thank you all for coming out. 45:08.705 --> 45:09.246 Have a good night. 45:10.929 --> 45:11.830 See you all next time.